Purpose:

To make the field of composition more accessible to musicians and the general public through the aural possibilities and immediate feedback of technology.

Background:

The study of composition is typically in the minority at any large music institution, and there is a certain inaccessible mystique surrounding the field. Most academic musicians who earn degrees in composition do so as a preconceived goal, and not as the result of the influence of their general music curriculum. In fact, many schools define composition as a subclass of music theory, training their composers to be practical theorists who also compose, rather than the opposite case. This results in composition being seen as a field that only a select elite can thrive in, with others given little practical support.

Many young musicians could become good composers, if only they were given the opportunities to learn. If composition was taught to musicians as much as the other major fields (performance, history, theory, and education), it would result in larger programs, more monetary resources, and a greater exchange of artistic ideas.

Problems:

There are three tangible reasons why composition is unapproachable:

1) Composition has no immediate feedback. In theory, and especially performance, there is an understandable process and a tangible, gratifying end result - both of which are lacking in composition. Composition is still saddled with the archaic image of a late night at the piano, painstakingly writing notes one at a time with pencil and paper. Even if a beginning composer writes an amazing composition, there is no guarantee that he or she will ever be able to hear it performed. With recent advances in technology, both of these barriers are effectively nullified. Software now exists to reduce the drudgery of music notation, and audio technology has become advanced enough to provide a fairly close representation of a live ensemble. This technology could be greatly improved by writing it with a musician in mind, since much software is written from the programmers' perspective.

2) Composition is not part of the basic theory curriculum. Other than cookie-cutter part writing, beginning music students are given no overview of composition in their first years of study. The opportunities for individual creativity are virtually nonexistent, and even advanced theory classes, such as counterpoint, skill in the craft is valued over creativity. Musicians who might be good composers never get involved with composition, simply because they have no exposure to it in an overview setting, or they equate it negatively with the theoretical exercises given in basic theory. Music composition in a class setting, or adding it to the basic theory curriculum would provide musicians with a better understanding of the field, and increase the number of students who want to learn it.

3) There is no established methodology for teaching composition. It is still seen by many as an art-form that would not benefit from any standardization of curriculum. Generally, individual professors devise their own methods of teaching. While this allows maximum tailoring to the student, there is no guarantee that these methods are sound or relevant outside that professor's university. The other four major fields of music all benefit from time-tested methods of teaching. Were this level of standards applied to composition, it would give much credibility to the entire field.

Methods:

The ordering of the problems above is no accident. By solving the first stated problem, one can provide a framework for solving the second problem. With continued research and observations, enough data can be obtained to present a clearer picture of the final problem.

First, the use of technology must be understood, endorsed, and effectively taught to students. By providing students with the means to write and hear their compositions immediately, a means is provided to teach composition in a classroom setting with more efficiency. Students could do more work with less teacher intervention, and teachers could focus more on the students' music rather than their beginning notational mistakes.

Once technology is established as an efficient and accessible means to compose and teach composition, it becomes much easier to add composition into the basic theory curriculum, one which already struggles to fit too many lessons into a couple years of study. Technology can be used as a composition tool, a grading tool, and a teaching tool (this is expanded further in the addendum).

As composition becomes a standard in the basic theory curriculum, it will allow a better understanding of the methods and approaches that effectively teach composition. This understanding can provide the groundwork for a standard compositional pedagogy.

Specific Applications:

With a project of such wide scope, it is apparent that focusing on the entire plan would be folly for any one institution. However the electroacoustical studio is the perfect experimental ground to research the first two problems presented above. The studio would increase the appeal of composition to students who otherwise would not have considered the possibilities of composition. Because there is currently no well-known compositional pedagogy program anywhere in the United States, this could result in FSU becoming a model program, both at home and abroad.

Addendum - Commercial Applications:

At the time of writing, there is no commercially successful software capable of customizable error-checking and pattern-recognition in notation-independent music files. Such a program would have the following features:

• Platform and file-format independence
• Ability to convert existing file formats (like MIDI and Finale) into a standard file format.
• Ability to search a single line of music for user-specified patterns (such as too many repeated notes, or leaps greater than a fifth).
• Ability to search multiple lines of music for user-specified patterns (such as parallel fifths, or outlined tritones).

The uses of such a program are readily apparent for both the teacher and the student. Students would have immediate feedback on errors in their assignments, and teachers would be able to mass-grade theory assignments, much like Scantron multiple-choice tests. In addition, it has been proven that concepts are learned faster when both an aural and visual model are provided. With such a program as this, students would be able to see and hear the explanation of theoretical rules, when in the past, they were limited to vague reasonings of textbooks.

This program would be useful, not only to composers, but also to theorists, and teachers of advanced topics like counterpoint and analysis. Since no program currently fills this need effectively, the possibilities of standardization by many or all music institutions are limitless. Research into how such a program should function and how musicians would use it would be valuable in the formation of partnerships with commercial software organizations.